It was taken on May 4, 1910, and celebrates the sod turning for the College Building (Peter MacKinnon Building), the first building on what eventually would be the University of Saskatchewan campus.
In just three years the university had grown from an idea to a building site. A governing structure had been created, a location chosen, funding secured, building plans drawn and staff hired.
The image is remarkable for the people who gathered that day. It is remarkable for the setting — all one would have seen that day wasa single clump of half a dozen poplars on an otherwise flat treeless plain. It is remarkable for the leap of faith that those present showed for the future for the institution, the province and the country.